Concert review: After 20 years, U2's 'epic night' in New Orleans worth the wait

Friday

Sep 15, 2017 at 5:34 PMSep 15, 2017 at 5:34 PM

By Keith Spera The Advocate (Baton Rouge)

Early in U2's triumphant return to the Mercedes-Benz Superdome on Thursday, Bono articulated his prayer for the evening: "That we might have one of those nights that none of us ever forgets. An epic night. That's all."

He and his bandmates have never lacked grand ambition. For two hours at the Superdome, they fully realized it, and then some.

Revisiting the 30-year-old "The Joshua Tree," their most popular album, is by definition a commercially expedient appeal to nostalgia. Most of the 39,000 or so tickets available for Thursday's show were sold, in contrast to the U2's poorly attended Superdome stop during the PopMart Tour 20 years ago.

But this didn't feel like nostalgia. It felt like the most important band of the past three decades doing what it does best.

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That 20 years had elapsed since U2's last full concert in New Orleans was not lost on Bono: "Thank you for coming to see us. Thanks for your patience."

Following a tidy opening set by the droll-humored Beck and his multifaceted band, U2 presented themselves, initially at least, as the antithesis of spectacle.

With no fanfare, Larry Mullen Jr. strode onto the main stage and along a runway leading to a Joshua tree-shaped satellite stage. Once settled at his drums, he struck the familiar military cadence of the anthemic "Sunday Bloody Sunday." The Edge followed with the song's chiming guitar hook; once Bono and bassist Adam Clayton joined in, they were off.

"New Year's Day," with Edge pulling triple duty on guitar, keyboards and backing vocals, led into a shimmering "Bad" and the defiant resolve of "Pride (In the Name of Love)." That four-song opening salvo established that, though they are older and Bono is no longer storming the ramparts, they are still U2.

As Rev. Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech scrolled on the massive video wall, the foursome reset themselves on the main stage to perform "The Joshua Tree" in sequence. New film clips shot by Anton Corbijn, the Dutch photographer who has crafted U2's visuals since meeting the band in New Orleans in 1982, filled the screen's 200-foot-wide, 40-foot-tall expanse with clear, vibrant high-definition imagery.

U2's lyrics are oblique enough for listeners to assign their own meanings. Those who wish to discern Christian messages easily can; Christ Church of Covington recently joined other Episcopal congregations who have staged "U2charist" services of the band's music.

Those who subscribe to more secular and/or humanistic philosophies can also find much meaning.

Regardless of perspective, U2's music aims to uplift and inspire. "Where the Streets Have No Name," the opening track on "The Joshua Tree," did. The band swung casually into "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," with Bono letting the audience sing the opening lines.

He shadow-boxed the imaginary fighter planes of "Bullet the Blue Sky." The Edge returned to the keyboards for "Red Hill Mining Town," but the arrangement suffered without his guitar.

As they moved into Side 2 of "The Joshua Tree," Bono warned, "there might be a few scratches."

They tweaked a certain president with a clip from a 1958 episode of the TV Western "Trackdown." In it, a con man named Trump promises to protect the townsfolk by building a wall.

Bono spoke his piece about immigration policy. "This country has always been a country of refuge, and we hope it stays that way," he said, noting that the Irish "were the original dreamers." New Orleans has always "opened its arms to the world," resulting in "a kaleidoscope of music and culture and good-looking people."

But Bono is a political pragmatist. He's willing to work with anyone for the common good.

By way of introducing "One Tree Hill," written for a friend of the band who died in a motorcycle accident, Bono noted that Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise "almost lost his life. We wish him continued strength and we hold him in our prayers."

Throughout the tour, New Orleans native Ellen Degeneres' portrait has appeared in the gallery of notable women that accompanies "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)." Other regulars include Oprah Winfrey, Patti Smith, Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice and Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani girl who survived a Taliban assassination attempt.

At the Dome, local notables Leah Chase and Ruby Bridges were added to the gallery.

U2 balanced such appeals to the head and heart with songs aimed squarely at the hips. An animated Bono bore down on "Elevation," with its buzzsaw riffs and woo-hoo refrain. Without pause, they segued into the slashing, high-octane "Vertigo," U2's last great anthem to date.

And then, surprise -- "The Saints Are Coming," the old Scottish punk song with which U2 and Green Day fired up the "Dome-coming" Superdome reopening following Hurricane Katrina in 2006. Black and gold fleur de lis flashed on the video wall. "We should figure out how to do that" song, Bono joked. "That would be good."

He saluted "local hero" the Edge, whose Music Rising charity replaced lost instruments along the Gulf Coast after Katrina. "He couldn't bear to live with the idea of you people without your musical instruments."

"This is New Orleans, this is America" Bono said, "and there is nothing this country cannot accomplish when you work together...as one."

Cue "One," as the Texas and Florida flags appeared onscreen alongside an appeal to donate to the Red Cross.

The band could have let fans down gently with "One." But after all those, in Bono's words, "old songs," they showcased a new one: "You're the Best Thing About Me," the melodic, mid-tempo lead single from their forthcoming album, "Songs of Experience."

They'd performed it for the first time only four nights earlier, in Indianapolis, and hadn't quite figured out the blocking. "I can stand here," Bono suggested to his bandmates, positioning himself near Mullen's drums on the satellite stage. As well-rehearsed and meticulous as most of the show was, here was a genuine moment of them muddling through a fresh challenge.

At the song's conclusion, the Edge started to take off his Fender Stratocaster, only to be stopped by Bono. The singer wanted one more: "I Will Follow," an adrenaline rush from the band's 1980 debut, "Boy."

The Edge normally uses a Gibson guitar for "I Will Follow." This, Bono proclaimed, was the "first time ever" that the song's clarion call was conjured with a Stratocaster: "Miracles can happen in New Orleans!"

So can epic U2 concerts.

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